In the preparation of poultry parts for market, it is a common practice to remove the skin from the poultry parts and to remove the inner lining from gizzards. In the process of removing the skin from poultry parts as well as in the process of removing the inner lining of gizzards, "peeling" or "skinning" machines are used to grasp and pull the skin or lining which employ a pair of elongated peeler or skinning rolls mounted in a side-by-side relationship. The peeler rolls are too close to each other to permit the poultry parts to pass between them and the peeler rolls have a series of helical teeth that mesh together as the peeler rolls rotate and engage and pull the skin from the poultry parts while urging the poultry parts along the lengths of the peeler rolls. The skin, etc. of the poultry part is grasped by the meshing teeth of the peeler rolls and pulled downwardly between the peeler rolls away from the poultry part that remains on the peeler rolls.
However, a problem with conventional peeling machines is that they often fail to completely remove the skin from the poultry parts. As the skin is removed from a poultry part, such as a breast, the peeler rolls of conventional peeling machines tend to tear the skin into small pieces which tend to accumulate between the teeth of the peeler rolls. As a result, the peeler rolls become fouled or "loaded-up" with pieces of skin, making it difficult for the teeth of the peeler rolls to effectively engage and pull additional segments of skin from the poultry part. This problem of the teeth of the peeler rolls becoming loaded-up with skin is especially common with breast skinning machines that utilize peeler rolls having relatively small teeth to avoid pinching and pulling meat away from the breast during the deskinning process. Consequently, the deskinning or peeling of poultry parts such as breasts and gizzards must often be completed by hand or by refeeding the poultry parts into the peeling machine before the poultry parts can be further processed for shipment to market.
Peeler rolls also are used to remove crops, windpipes and other matter extending from the neck of decapitated birds, by moving the birds suspended from their legs over peeler rolls. The peeler rolls grasp and pull the protruding portions of the crops, etc. However, conventional peeling machines generally are not well suited for use in pulling the crops, windpipes and other string like body parts from poultry parts such as poultry necks. The crops and windpipes are typically are tough and sinewy and a relatively strong pulling force is needed to pull the crops and windpipes from the poultry necks. The pairs of peeler rolls used by conventional peeling machines typically cannot generate such a pulling force sufficient to reliably remove the crops, etc. from the necks of the birds. Instead, the peeler rolls tend to pull the crops and windpipes to a certain distance away from the birds into a stretched condition and then continue to apply sliding frictional contact against the crops, etc. until the crops or windpipes wear through and break off, leaving pieces of the crops or windpipes with the poultry necks.
Therefore, it can be seen that it is desireable to provide an improved apparatus for completely and accurately removing the skin, crops, windpipes and other visceral material from poultry parts such as breasts, necks and gizzards without damaging the meat of the poultry parts and without requiring additional peeling and skinning operations to complete the removal of the skin, crops, windpipes or other visceral material from the poultry parts.